Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA.
Child Dev. 2024 Sep-Oct;95(5):1779-1796. doi: 10.1111/cdev.14097. Epub 2024 Apr 13.
This study examines how retributive motives-the desire to punish for the purpose of inflicting harm in the absence of future benefits-shape third-party punishment behavior across intergroup contexts. Six- to nine-year-olds (N = 151, M = 8.00, SD = 1.15; 54% White, 18% mixed ethnicities, 17% Asian American; 46% female; from the USA) could punish ingroup, outgroup, or non-group transgressors by removing positive resources and allocating negative ones. Both punishments were described as retributive, yet allocating negative resources was perceived as more retributive than removing positive ones. We predicted that children would punish outgroups more so than ingroups and that this effect would be especially pronounced when punishment is perceived as particularly retributive. The results did not align with this prediction; instead, children similarly punished all agents.
这项研究考察了报复动机——即在没有未来利益的情况下为了施加伤害而惩罚他人的欲望——如何在群体间背景下影响第三方的惩罚行为。6 至 9 岁的儿童（N=151，M=8.00，SD=1.15；54%为白人，18%为混合种族，17%为亚裔美国人；46%为女性；来自美国）可以通过剥夺积极资源和分配消极资源来惩罚内群体、外群体或非群体的违规者。这两种惩罚都被描述为报复性的，但分配消极资源被认为比剥夺积极资源更具报复性。我们预测，儿童对外群体的惩罚会多于对内群体的惩罚，而且当惩罚被认为特别具有报复性时，这种效果会更加明显。然而，结果与这一预测并不一致；相反，儿童对所有的代理人都进行了类似的惩罚。
